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“Sometimes you are planted apart to see how you will grow together.” ― Nitya Prakash In this sudden era of remote work, everyone from internal teams to systems partners will rely on virtual collaboration more than ever before. To help make this transition as smooth as possible, we’ve pulled together VIVA’s top six tips for successful virtual meetings that connect, inspire, and keep the ball rolling – even when you are not physically in the same space. 1. Define the…

The Quality Counts California (QCC) Local Consortia and Partnership Grants RFA released January 31, 2020 merged First 5 and California Department of Education funding streams for quality rating improvement systems (QRIS) into one grant. Nine years after the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge catalyzed the development of QRISs in California, and five years after the expansion of support for quality through CDE’s CSSP and First 5 CA’s IMPACT investment were made, we now have an exciting opportunity to…

Let’s face it – meetings can sometimes be a bit dull. But to start a meeting with the wind at your back, we recommend using these ice breakers to allow everyone a chance to arrive in the space, have a laugh, a moment of reflection, and an opportunity to learn something new about their colleagues. Enjoy!

Helping children understand and value differences can be quite a task. VIVA worked with Quality Start LA to create Me and My Friends, a short e-book about a preschooler named Mateo who lives in LA County. The book was positioned alongside tips for parents and providers to help guide conversations about diversity and inclusion.

That’s the question we’ve been asking during a year-long research and storytelling project to understand families’ experiences accessing and using public services to create better lives for their children. The first thing we did was research to understand a system that was redesigned to better work for the families that need it. Michigan made significant investments in redesigning its public service system using human-centered design principles, and the result is impressive. Learn more about what Michigan has done right, and where they have room…

Having celebrated VIVA’s 8 year anniversary as a firm, we are proud to reflect on how we view our work, our team, and those we serve. We regularly discuss as a team what brings us together and what unifies our efforts, and at the end of these conversations, we always land on social impact partnerships. With this in mind, we began to think about our firm’s name. But before we go further, let’s take a brief walk back in time. When Nicole and…

At this year’s Build #QRIS2019 Conference, we participated in some excellent sessions, delivered three presentations, spread the word about VIVA Goods, caught up with many familiar faces…and, of course, ate more than our share of beignets!

Yes, meetings can be powerful. As professionals, there are times when we wonder, “Why are we meeting? Was that worth my time?” And other times when we walk away feeling the WOW of a great meeting. For those of us focused on social impact, it is worth pausing to think about how we can make our time together even better.

Quick—how long would it take you to grab your phone and take a picture right now? 30 seconds? 1 minute? The ubiquitousness of smartphones means that we each have a camera, video camera, and ways of sharing what we’ve captured with the world at our fingertips, virtually all the time. So what do we do with that?